'The buyer of this extraordinary letter resides outside London and so the letter, in the short term at least, will stay in England and remain a part of Britain's cultural heritage'
The Halls auction house in Shrewsbury says the two-sided letter, written by the author of one of the first dictionaries of the England language, was penned in March 1783.
The Shropshire vendor bought the letter at Sotheby's around 1966 to prevent it from leaving the country at a time when Johnson memorabilia was being snapped up by American collectors, the late Donald F. Hyde and his wife Mary. Gerry Berwyn-Jones, the head of fine art at Halls, said: "As a result of the Hyde's dedication to collecting Johnson's letters, these items are now quite scarce on the market. ]
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